News and notes from May 22 Bulger status conference

U.S. District Court Judge Denise J. Casper attended to some last-minute pre-trial matters in the James “Whitey” Bulger case during a May 22 status conference.

Casper met with the lawyers and Bulger for the last time before a June 3 final pre-trial conference.

The judge said she plans to begin the arduous task of picking 12 jurors and six alternates on June 4 by bringing in 660 jurors over the course of two days. Lawyers often doubt that people can be found to fairly and impartially decide a case, particularly a high-profile one like Bulger, but at the end of the day it usually gets done.

Meanwhile, there’s been absolutely zero talk about continuing the trial or changing the venue. I don’t expect that to change during jury selection.

Casper also heard from the lawyers on issues surrounding the disclosure of a confidential informant and whether the government should be permitted to run criminal background checks on potential jurors. She took both matters under advisement, but it’s pretty apparent that she intends to side with the government.

Virtually every ruling she’s made since taking over the case from Judge Richard G. Stearns has been decided against Bulger; there’s no reason to think today will be any different. Prosecutor Brian Kelly told Casper that his office will submit a disk to her clerk containing between 900 and 1,000 exhibits, many of which are photographs.

A wave of motions in limine and other filings are expected tomorrow.

Defense attorney Hank B. Brennan said he and co-counsel J.W. Carney Jr. will not stipulate to any evidence. Kelly replied that the defense’s position means the case will take longer to finish than initially anticipated. Either way, it looks like the jury isn’t going to begin its deliberations until the late summer/early fall.

At the conclusion of today’s hearing, Brennan told reporters that he and Carney have sought transparency from day one, but almost all their requests have been objected to by the prosecution, and most of their requests for help from the judge have been denied.

“At every step, when we’ve tried to find information that would be helpful to elicit the truth, we’ve been stopped, we’ve been prevented, and we’ve been fought,” Brennan said. “We’re going to continue throughout the litigation and throughout this trial to do everything we can to bring the information to the jury so the public and the jury and the families of the victims can hear the truth.”